The Cuban Kitchen: A Mother's Cooking From Miami To Maine

Cuban cuisine has chewed its way into South Florida's culture. Many an abuela has shared family recipes for ropa vieja and bistec empanizado, through generations. WLRN wants a seat at your table to hear stories, memories or recipes from your kitchen.

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Poet Richard Blanco reads his "Cooking with Mamá in Maine," from his book 'Looking for the Gulf Motel'.

Blanco's poetry is filled with vivid descriptions of the Cuban exile experience, especially the flavors his mother brought to Miami when his parents left Cuba (by way of Spain).

When he left Miami for Maine several years ago, he missed those flavors of Miami, those flavors of Cuba, those flavors of his childhood. In this poem, as Blanco watches his mother prepare his favorite dish, he contemplates his youth, the trajectory of his mother's life, and his own future.

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Nitza Villapol was basically the Julia Child of Cuba. She wrote dozens of editions of her cookbook, Cocina al Minuto, and she hosted a Cuban TV show of the same name for 45 years. In many Cuban kitchens, there's a well-worn copy of one of her cookbooks tucked in a kitchen drawer.

Christina Gomez-Pina, in Kendall, had a copy of the cookbook on her bookshelf. Her mother-in-law gave her Cocina al Minuto on Gomez-Pina's wedding day: "It sat on the shelf for nine years except for one time when I used it to make a dulce de leche cortadito."

Ropa vieja literally means “old clothes.” It’s not the most appetizing name for a food, but it fits the dish, a type of beef stew, pretty well. For me, ropa vieja really is like old clothes—familiar and use endlessly, and comfortable for those very two reasons. It was the dish I grew up with, being the meal my mom best knows how to cook.

When Richard Blanco got the call that he'd been chosen to write a poem for President Obama's second inauguration, at first he thought it was a prank. He still has no idea how he ended up on the President's radar.

"I would dream actually that the President has actually read my work and was so moved by it," says Blanco, laughing, "that he said, 'I want this guy to read a poem at the inaugural.'"

Bren Herrera, 34, grew up hearing her mother, Betty, 62, tell stories about life as a young wife and mother in 1960's and 1970's Cuba, when food shortages and rationing were part of life.

They would both laugh over a story about a drunken chicken Betty smuggled into Havana from the countryside. (Below is the full, translated story, as told by Betty Herrera. The story was edited for radio.)

For many Cubans living in South Florida, the pre-Castro years in Cuba represent a golden era. Nostalgia for friends, family and yesteryear traditions can be felt at Cuban coffee counters across South Florida. One local business owner decided to take this yearning for tradition one step further by selling coffee for 3 cents, the price it was sold for in pre-Castro Cuba.